Month: September 2014

Good afternoon everyone, I wanted to share a brief update about our Annual Coastal and Pelagic Bird Trip which was on the morning of Saturday, September 27th. The weather was perfect and the slower speeds due to oue of our engines being down was no issue with a trip like this! The highlights of the trip were a 1st winter LITTLE GULL, huge rafts of eider ducks, jaegers, multiple great cormorants and 1000’s of Bonaparte’s gulls. We also saw three minke whales, lots of porpoise and seals but our focus was on birds. Look for more photos and an in depth description of our trip on Nick’s Quoddy Link Bird Blog

Here are a few photos that I took yesterday

A raft of eider ducks, there were more here, all I could get in

Black guillemots in their winter plumage

Bonaparte’s gull

Bonaparte’s gull showing characteristic white leading edge of the wing

On the other trip we did yesterday we did was a chartered trip with a group of international students. We spent time off Spruce Island in Head Harbour Passage with a minke whale and we also saw lots of porpoise and both harbour and grey seals.

One harbour porpoise, the one on the bottom is a reflection

Check out the characteristic surfacing of the minke whale!

minke

Now for an update on the Quoddy Link herself, we have a mechanic coming down tomorrow (with the parts) and hopefully the boat will be up and running with TWO engines by tomorrow or Tuesday at the very latest!

Thanks you everyone for checking in and thanks to everyone for your patience over the last week with our boat troubles,

Good afternoon everyone, well, we have had quite a frustrating week dealing with some engine issues. We do have 2 engines, as we are a power catamaran, so we have been able to do a few trips on ideal weather days on one engine (longer and slower trips but with ideal weather is has been quite relaxing moving at a slower pace…it is NOT a safety concern). Now that the issues with the engine have been sorted out and the mechanic will be down to help with repairs on Monday we are hoping to back up and running at full speed by next Tuesday or Wednesday. We do have scheduled departures this weekend, and they will be on one engine and we will be paying close attention to the weather on Sunday afternoon.

We have done a few trips in the past few days and I wanted to share some photos with you of the life in Head Harbour Passage.

A small sampling of the gulls in Head Harbour Passage on the flood tide

Minke whale surfacing amongst the gulls

Minke whale

Minke whale

We have our annual bird cruise this Saturday morning so I will let you all know how it goes! I will also let you know when the boat is up and running at full speed!

Good afternoon everyone, the whale watching continues to be wonderful out of St. Andrews. On Monday, September 15th we found a young humpback whale off South Wolf, the first humpback sighting in our area of the 2014 season! We also saw this whale on Tuesday, September 16th and we were treated to some incredible surface activity including tail breaching and tail lobbing (our Scout Boat found the humpback and this young whale was breaching fully for over an hour before we got there and we were so happy the surface activity continued for over 20 minutes when we got there). The photos are currently at Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies in hopes of matching this young whale to the catalogue.

Here are some photos of the humpback we saw

Humpback tail breaching and passenger photographing from the upper deck

Check out those pectoral flippers

We were not able to locate the humpback on Wednesday, September 17th but we found fin whales and got some incredible views.

Fin whale just about to surface

Fin whale calf

Fin whale calf just under the water, you can see the markings right under the water

Fin whale approaching the Quoddy, you can see the asymmetrical colouring of the lower jaw

We are still seeing lots of porpoise and seals as well.

Grey seals

Harbour seals

Thanks so much for checking in today! There is still time to join us on the Bay before our 2014 season comes to a close, call 1-877-688-2600 for reservations.

Good morning everyone, we continue to spend time on every departure with the mother and calf fin whale pair that has been hanging out and feeding off South Wolf (there has also been up to 6 other adults in the same area feeding depending on the tide).

Here are some photos of the recent finback sightings including lots of the calf we have fallen completely in love with!!

Fin whale calf

Fin whale calf

Fin whale calf, you can see the start of the chevron on the left

This fin whale calf often raises the front of his rostrum out of the water

Check out the blowholes!

Beautiful fin whale calf

Beautiful fin whale calf

Fin whale mother and calf. Note the chevron on the left hand side of the the calf, a very unique marking

Barrel roll from calf

Mother and calf and another adult (blow)

Partial breach from the calf

partial breach from the calf, check out the tiny pectoral flipper

Another barrel roll, they have such beautiful flukes

Partial breach from the calf

Also, hopefully very soon I will have some underwater footage of this “little” whale to share with all of you! THANK YOU NICK!!

As well as our whale sightings we continue to see lots of porpoise as well as both harbour and grey seals and bald eagles around the Islands.

Thanks so much for checking in and I will share that underwater video as soon as I can!

Hello everyone, we have spent the past few days with a mother and calf fin whale pair that have completely stolen our hearts. This is the same calf we saw on Sunday, September 7th off the Wolves in it’s own. This calf has some of the most beautiful markings that I have ever seen on a fin whale. We have also had some other fin whales feeding the area although they are moving around quite a bit and effort has to be made to locate them (we don’t mind searching at all, which is why we tell you our trips average about 3 hours but sometimes may be a bit longer due the patience that is needed for wildlife)

Thanks so much for checking in today! We are still running 2 trips a day with a special 20% discount off our morning departures in celebration of our 20th Anniversary! Come experience the Bay of Fundy catamaran style.

Good evening everyone, I promised a separate post on our Annual North Atlantic right whale trip so here it is….

Well, first, we did not see any right whales. There had been a few reported in the area on Thursday but the weather we were dealt on Sunday morning didn’t allow us to do much searching. We did send our Scout Boat out ahead to search for whales and a BIG THANK YOU to Matty because he found three humpback whales about 32 miles from St. Andrews…and we couldn’t have asked for anything better on a day with a some rather wavy conditions. The trio was spending most of their time at the surface, relaxing and fluking up while diving but not moving far and were incredibly easy to watch. And everything got even better when we realized who we were watching…we spend out morning with Whistler, Vee and FOGGY! Foggy is a humpback whale who is very near and dear to many of the whale watchers in the Bay of Fundy and last September she survived a severe entanglement and her rescue was very well covered. Check out the story HERE. We also saw many fin whales spread out while we were watching the humpbacks and we stopped with 2 minkes and seals on our way back into St. Andrews.

I wanted to share a bunch of photos with you from our trip

Vee

Vee and our Scout Boat

Vee

Foggy, note that the injuries are older and not from her entanglement last September

Vee

Our trio of humpbacks

Whistler

Watching humpbacks from the foredeck of the Quoddy Link

Foggy and Vee

Foggy and Vee

Check out those pecs!

You can see all three here but you have to look for the pecs

Check out those turbercles! There is a coarse, sensory hair growing out of each one

THANK YOU to everyone who joined us on this special trip! We hope to see you all again,

Good evening everyone, the first week in September has been wonderful with consistent fin whale and minke sightings on every departure. We also had our Annual North Atlantic right whale trip on Sunday, September 7th but I will cover that in a separate post.

I wanted to share some photos with from the past week….

Lets start with finners…

Fin whale with fluke prints, Sept 3

Sept 3

Lunging fin whale with harbour porpoise, Sept 3

Sept 5

Sept 7

Fin whale calf, spending some time away from mom, Sept 7

Fin whale calf, Sept 7

Sept 7

Sept 7

Sept 7

Sept 7

Sept 7

Sept 7

Sept 7

Sept 9

Sept 7

Check out the unique marking on the peduncle Sept 9

Check out the lower white, right jaw, Sept 9

Check out the asymmetrical lower jaw,Sept 9

Lots of minke whale sightings as well

Minke whale off St. Andrews, Sept 2

Minke whale with mittens visible, Sept 4

Sept 4

Minke whale with mittens visible through the water, Sept 5

We are also seeing lots of harbour porpoise and seals as well as bald eagles on our departures.

Good afternoon everyone, I thought I would do a little post to tell you about our last 2 weeks on the water. I am sorry that my posts have not been as frequent this season, I am finding that I get a lot more response from facebook, so I do post all of our daily updates there.

Over the past 2 weeks we have seen an increase in feed and whale activity in our area which is great! We have had many trips with up to 7 large finbacks whales feeding aggressively off Bliss and Blacks, especially on the flood tide. We continue to search the further offshore area to look for humpbacks and I will be sure to share any sightings we may have.

Here are some photos of the finbacks from the past 2 weeks.

There is always lots of other wildlife to keep your eyes open for and we always try and make some time to spend with porpoise and seals.

On the 22nd of August we hand another incredible encounter with a Mola mola

We saw a beautiful basking shark on the 24th of August

Thanks for checking in and don’t forget to check out and like out facebook page for daily updates on our sightings.

Good morning everyone, Danielle here with an early update on our Annual North Atlantic right whale trip. When we booked the trip over a month ago there were lots of right whales that were being sighted in the Bay of Fundy towards the Grand Manan Basin but as of the past 2 weeks there have been very few sighted, although there were 7 individuals reported last Thursday. So the plan remains the same;

– The trip is entirely weather dependent! Please call the office at 1-877-688-2600 the day before to check on the weather.

– IF the weather is appropriate we will make our way out past Grand Manan even if there are no right whales being sighted and search for other species, including humpbacks that are being reported daily from our friends at Whales n Sails and Sea Watch Tours.

– I will be keeping in touch with the NEAq right whale research team as well as the whale watch companies off Grand Manan so we are aware of what is being seen.

– If right whales are the only reason you are joining us, and there are not any right whales being sighted and you do not wish to join us to search for humpbacks and other species we may sight off Grand Manan please remember our 48 hour cancellation policy for this special trip.

If you have any other questions please don’t hesitate to contact me through facebook or call the office at 1-877-688-2600.

Cheers,
Danielle

Blog Editor Profile – Danielle

I have been working for Quoddy Link Marine since 2002. I graduated from the University of Guelph with an honors BSc. in Marine Biology. I'm in charge of photographing, identifying and recording the whales that we see and sharing that information with Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown, MA and the Grand Manan Whale and Seabird Research Station on Grand Manan, NB. It's a privilege to have the opportunity to spend the amount of time I do on the water with the whales, they are absolutely amazing creatures.

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